It’s finally here. The Fall Classic will kick off in Canada tonight featuring two teams full of titans in a best-of-seven series to determine this year’s World Series Champion. We’ve already seen epic
performances this October from superstar two-way player Shohei Ohtani and legacy bat Vladimir Guerrero Jr. What else can we expect as the 2025 season ends in an epic clash?
Pitching
The Dodgers run through the Postseason has been a masterclass on why starting pitching still matters in 2025. During the Wild Card Series they handily defeated the Reds, but showed some real vulnerability late in games with their bullpen surrendering multiple crooked numbers. They handily defeated a hard hitting Phillies team, dropping just one game in the National League Division Series before sweeping the Milwaukee Brewers out of the postseason on the back of pitching performances like this 10-K gem from Shohei Ohtani [VIDEO].
Meanwhile Toronto has already seen a performance for the ages from rookie Trey Yesavage including an 11 strikeout gem against the New York Yankees in the American League Division Series [VIDEO].
Don’t expect the bright lights of the World Series or the star power of the Dodgers to impact Yesavage even a little bit. Honestly looking at these probable pitching match-ups you have to give the edge to the Dodgers, but I’m not sure it’s all that big of an edge. After all, Max Scherzer in the playoffs is still Max Scherzer in the playoffs, and it does not get much bigger than a Game Four showdown between Scherzer and Shohei Ohtani:
The Dodgers starting pitchers have certainly performed better than the Blue Jays starting pitchers so far this Postseason, but it’s also worth noting that the Blue Jays starting pitchers had much more difficult assignments in stifling two of the top ten offenses in baseball by wRC+ in the Yankees (No. 1) and Mariners (No. 3), while the Dodgers faced the Reds (No. 24), Phillies (No. 7) and Brewers (No. 9).
If the Blue Jays hitters (No. 4 by wRC+) can get to the Dodgers starting pitching, expect their offense to feast on the shaky Dodgers bullpen — it’s a big “if” to get to that part of the game, however.
Hitting
If the Dodgers have the Postseason edge in pitching, the Blue Jays have the Postseason edge in hitting. It is worth noting that during the regular season these teams were pretty close in terms of offensive production by wRC+, with the Dodgers putting up the second best mark in MLB with a wRC+ of 113 and the Blue Jays just behind them at fourth with a wRC+ of 112.
But the offseason is a fundamentally different environment. More so, it’s an environment where a hot streak matters, and there is no hotter hitting team this October than the Toronto Blue Jays who have put up a team wRC+ of 143 (not a typo) through 11 games and two Postseason series so far this October. The Dodgers are second with a wRC+ of 113 that matches their regular season mark, but as a reminder, wRC+ is a league and park normed stat where that 30 point difference basically means the Blue Jays have been 30 percent better at run production this postseason. You can see what that looks like in the table below showing every player from both teams with at least 20 plate appearances this Postseason:
George Springer might have delivered the three-run bomb that broke every heart in Seattle, but Vladimir Guerroro Jr. is the real standout among incredible company here. Vladito has been on fire, slashing .442/.510/.930 through two Postseason series so far and being named ALCS MVP [VIDEO].
The Dodgers sluggers are no slouches, the NLCS MVP, Ohtani has dazzled at the plate and has been backed up by strong offensive performances from his teammates, including former Blue Jay Teoscar Hernández — you know he’d love to silence the Rogers Centre the same why he silenced American Family Field with this bomb [VIDEO].
Intangibles
It all sets the stage for a real clash of baseball’s titans north of the border tonight. While the Dodgers enter as the favorites to win the World Series according to the oddsmakers in Vegas, the Blue Jays hold home field advantage. Both Dodger Stadium and the Rogers Centre have been electric environments this Postseason. Dodger fatigue has fans making maps like this demonstrating that all of non-LA North America may be cheering for the Blue Jays, but you have to imagine if they’d zoomed this map out to Japan they’d find at least one more country strongly in LA’s corner:
